


Roundabout

by InsominiacArrest



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Injury Recovery, Quadriplegic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-25
Updated: 2016-07-03
Packaged: 2018-07-18 03:59:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7298707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InsominiacArrest/pseuds/InsominiacArrest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>M'gann and Artemis are dating and working on the team, things are going great, until tragedy strikes on a normal day and they are faced with a whole new set of challenges</p><p>Artemis must now reevaluate her self image, her skills and where she's going to go from there.</p><p>--writing commission for wombatking.tumblr.com--</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Luck and Other Questions of Chance

**Author's Note:**

> set six months after events of season one

Maybe it was because she was trying to impress her girlfriend. Maybe it was because she figured outside of the battlefield she was invincible- she could survive lasers and projectiles flying at her so everyday life was nothing. Perhaps she just wasn’t the lucky sort, she always suspected that-- somewhere deep down she figured maybe she was just the gambler at the table who never caught a break.

The pool was broad, borrowed and almost perfect that day with the sun permeating the light blue depths in little bright shards.

  
Artemis was relaxing by it with her head thrown back and the murmur of the breeze on her neck.

  
She sighs deeply and stretches her aching limbs. The ache was sort of a constant now with missions coming in faster than they could fill them, but she could deal with that, that’s what they had wanted.

 

She lays out like a starfish on the pavement and closes her eyes. Sprinklers sound off in the distance and the scent of chlorine and barbecue colors the afternoon.

“Roll over.” A voice addresses her and Artemis peaks up through her eyelashes. 

“What?”  
  
“Come one.” M’gann nudges her with her foot, she was smiling with the sun behind her red hair- setting it aglow, she holds up a bottle, “sunscreen.”  
  
“Don’t need it.” Artemis grunts back, but she could already feel herself moving.

“I saw this in all those beach movies.” M’gann says excitedly.

“I don’t burn.” She makes a face, “Much.”

“Too bad, move, move.” She rolls her over.

Artemis looks at her nails and M’gann straightens out her limbs and arranges her legs.

 

“Handsy.” Artemis comments dryly.

 

M’gann doesn’t reply but runs her hands over her calf. She grins, her girlfriend certainly was hands on.

 

“Let me work, no squirming.” She chastises as she covers her palm in white liquid and starts rubbing it into the Artemis’s skin.

 

She hums contently despite herself. M’gann presses little circles into her muscles, massaging her back and thighs to work in the sun protection. It was excessive but both of them seemed to be enjoying the contact and simplicity of it.

 

It was easy like this, with her handsy girlfriend sitting over her and the reward of an actual day without someone trying to take her or a city, or her city out.

 

M’gann stretches out next to her when she’s satisfied with the job.

 

“You finally done?” She asks in a loose tone that suggested teasing.

 

M’gann tucked her hair behind her ear, “you will now no longer get burned to a crisp.” She tips her head, “You’re welcome.”  
  
Artemis elbows her and she laughs in response. “Forgive me for not swooning. Sunscreen, always the way to a girl’s heart.”

 

M’gann laughs back and gets out the bottle again, “I should have brought more than!”

 

Artemis shakes her head, and leans over to kiss her on the cheek hesitantly, “no need.” She smiles like her face was going to fall off and Artemis ducks back down.

 

They lay in a honey thick silence before M’gann gets out a book to start reading to her, some sort of poetry from her home world that sounded thick and esoteric even in English.

 

Artemis is trapped between sleep and nodding to the poetry session when the sun starts to crank out the heat like a furnace set on high.

 

It hit 2 in the afternoon and Artemis sat back up, readjusting her bathing suit and rubbing her cheek where it was imprinted on by the pavement.

 

“We should swim.” She absently kicks M’gann to get her attention, the other girl's eyes dart up.

 

“We’re in the middle of Rol’s hymn to dying stars.” M’gann says with a frown and a little pout on her bottom lip and Artemis snorts.

 

“Okay, rain check on exploding stars then babe.” She kisses M’gann’s cheek fondly before standing up, “I’ll be all about dying stars once I cool off.”  
  
M’gann shakes her head, “I just covered you in sunscreen, we will have to do it all over again!”

 

Artemis winks at her, “is that such a bad thing?”

 

M’gann blushes slightly before smiling behind her hand, “fine.”  
  
Artemis shrugged and walked up backwards to the water’s edge. She’d never been to a lot of pools growing up, unless you counted swamps she had to swim through in survivalist camp. That is to say she hadn’t visited basically any, especially not private ones.

 

She turns around and makes sure M’gann is watching, she waves at her before putting her hands above her head and diving in.

 

Maybe she wanted to show off to her girlfriend, maybe bad things just happen and nothing can stop them, or maybe, her irrational suspicions were confirmed: she was born unlucky.

 

\--------------

 

Humans were delicate.

 

They had thin bones and solid forms that didn’t stretch and vertebrates that shattered.

 

That day M’gann didn’t exactly know how long humans were supposed to be able to hold their breaths. She did some calculations in her head with lung capacity but her senses were still sleepy and unconcerned. It wasn’t a mission, it was an afternoon with her girlfriend.

 

She was new to human affection, but there was something intoxicating about it.

 

She was contemplating making Artemis something special, perhaps making up an anniversary as an excuse to bake for her. People were always have anniversaries on shows, always cooking or making something sweet. She was dwelling on the many aspects of cakes when she noticed that Artemis was definitely exceeding her lung capacity with that dive.

 

It was a long, delicate swan dive that shot right into the water like an arrow, and M’gann had been impressed. “Hey, are you trying to look cool? No one cares how long you can hold your breath,” she smirks, “I can grow gills, so honestly.”

 

She gets up and makes it too the water's edge. “Hey…” She trails off, the water was wickedly still. M’gann’s eyes go wide, heart thumping in her throat and the sudden woosh of trembling rushes through her system.

 

Humans were delicate. Brittle bones, and solid flesh. Artemis was lying on the bottom of the pool floor.

 

She jumps unceremoniously into the water and tries to think of first aid procedures. She couldn’t move her head, she can’t move her head.

 

She drags her out of the pool, checks her vitals and communicates frantically to anyone in a ten mile radius to call 911.

 

Something was wrong, very wrong. She was laying crookedly, her breathing was too shallow, her head curved at the wrong angle.

 

The ambulance blared down the suburban road where they had borrowed a pool, it didn’t come fast enough, nothing was fast enough.

 

M’gann could tell by the EMT’s eyes and her own senses that this was not ideal, Artemis was not awake--her gut clenches-- she was not lying right, breathing right, she wasn’t moving.

 

M’gann was a strong believer in random chance, but somewhere something deep inside her probed the question ‘why?’

 

\-----------------------

 

Artemis could breath. That was the upshot. She had no idea what kind of upshot that was, but they told her she was fortunate to breathe unassisted.

                      

She could breath, in, out, blink, think.

 

And she was left with her emotions more than thought. The thoughts only came in short, angry bursts that spiked like knife pricks into her head, she silenced those and was left with feelings.

Unordered emotion soup. Unregulated soldiers that felt like freezer burn in her core. They were so jumbled she couldn’t name any which one was dominating, all she knew was that she wasn’t crying or laughing, wasn’t wailing or breaking down.

 

Her jaw was clenched and eyes shut like they welded with blue flames—she didn’t want to open them.

 

It hurt. She didn’t know what kind of oxymoron that was: to feel no sensation, no movement and yet still taking pain killers like jelly beans.

 

She could breath. In, out, and it hurt.

 

The hospital tasted like sterilizer and the world was a sea of concerned murmuring voices and people with no idea how to break it to her.

She would have yelled at them if she was also still trying to break to herself.

It wasn’t a battlefield, it wasn’t a mission, it wasn’t her father’s training, yet... she wasn’t getting up from this one.


	2. Empty Spaces

She moves her eyes from side to side, thinking about nothing and feeling her nose tingle like a feather brushed up against it.

She moves her head to her other shoulder, “I miss itching my nose.” She declares to the empty air, or at least M’gann in the other room.

“What was that?”  
  
“I miss itching my nose!” She yelled over.

There was a slow silence, “I’ll be there in a moment.”  


“That’s not the point,” she murmurs. She moves her eyes over the unfamiliar grey carpet, the lank curtains and the faceless walls.

  
She had to move to a new place. She had to do a lot of things. C4 was apparently the vertebrate that betrayed her

“I could use a painkiller,” she adds, it was a common phrase for her now: even the parts of her with no sensation could still light on fire like a dry forest hit by lightning. It lit up like the 4th July along her spine.

“I’ll be right there love.” M’gann called again, her voice still chipper and _trying_. It was just the start.

Artemis wanted to itch her nose.

M’gann makes it over, eggs in hand and a battalion of pills by the side, Artemis wished it was the type that knocked her out.

“I miss forks.” She says to the plate, “I miss knifes.” M’gann cuts her eggs into little bites for her anyway.

“I know.” It’s all she can really say.

She finishes quietly and M’gann itches her nose for her discretely.

Artemis looks down at the ground, “...was my bow brought over?” She asks faintly.

M’gann glances up with an underlying secludedness to her eyes, “you talked about this. You told me not to just last week.”  


Artemis shakes her head. “I change my mind. We could hang it on the wall...it’s too empty.”

 

M’gann looks down at her hands, “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” it was a quiet sentiment, “Henrietta--”  
  
“Henrietta,” Artemis spat like a curse.

“She says...reminders should be at a minimal.” She continues like the fire wasn’t heating in Artemis's eyes.  
  
“Reminders of what I used to do. Be able to do,” It was a bitter sentiment, nothing but puckering lemon and layering twisted feelings, “and Henrietta says it will be _good_ for me.” She was sick of it, being told what was good for her. The nurse was too soft, like pity covered in an oven mitt.

 

M’gann shrugged, “I don’t know how to help when you’re like this.” The tiredness edged into her voice, and Artemis can’t bring herself to do anything about that either. She lays her head back and stares at the ceiling.

 

‘ _I’ll be fine_ ’ was a mantra she held since she was a kid, with bruised knees and sore finger tips, in nights curled up onto herself and hiding her hollow face weeping something unknowable. She repeated _I’ll be fine_. And she wasn’t going to give it up now. But she still wanted the burn, to flicker, to scorch the land around her.

 

She would have to forget.

 

“When can I take the next painkiller?”

 

M’gann sighed, “Soon…want to lay down?”  
  
Artemis shrugged and her eyes stung like guilt, shame, black thick smoke that clogged the lungs she couldn’t feel. M’gann carried her to bed so they don’t have to speak and she keeps the thorns under her tongue this time. They curl up in bed and M’gann pets her hair, there isn’t anything to say but Artemis closes her eyes and wants to detonate. M’gann keeps whispering and petting her hair.

 

\---------

 

M’gann had powers of the mind, of the body, of moving heaven and earth and yet her hands were numb like heavy weights. What could she do against whims, against waves, against someone else’s internal trauma?

 

She didn’t really know what heroes were, that was her conclusion. This wasn’t someone in a cape or an invasion or something she could throw across the room like a limp doll and declare victory.

 

She didn’t let Artemis see it, see her pulling at her hair and wondering over and over: what was the point of having all her power if none of it mattered? Wondering if she herself was useless.

 

Her tech didn’t apply, her people didn’t help, and it was just them united against a riptide, a pebble in the churning ocean.

 

However, she sits in their little living room with Henrietta the nurse with something she convinces herself is hope.

 

Artemis lay on her back and Henrietta manipulated her limbs and the blood flow, they could prevent atrophy, blood clots, and maybe moving was in the future--that’s what they always said anyway.

 

Muscle movements, up down, arms across her body, leg stretches.

 

FNS, electrodes that sparked her muscles and toned them, M’gann watched blankly, she caught herself wondering if it hurt, and then stopped herself.

 

The FNS churned out energy and Artemis twitched her nose, her active eyes were deep in thought, in something M’gann couldn’t guess at.

 

Her eyes spoke like cold metal and coal factories, she threw herself into as many sessions as possible, told Henrietta was going to do more, more, more.

 

M’gann told her she could be as independent as possible in the future, but she couldn’t bring herself to breathe the word ‘permanent’ around her yet. That there was no ‘moving herself’ again. Not yet, not with eyes that sweat steel and factories that burned.

 

Artemis continued to lay in the thin gray carpet when they were done.

 

“I think,” she began and M’gann perked up, keeping her eyes alert, “I think maybe…” She sighs, “this isn’t working.”  
  
“You are doing so well.”  
  
“It’s not the same.” It sounded more contemplative than angry.

 

“It won’t be.” Henrietta stood by the door and her eyebrows rising like knowing sunrises.

 

“I know,” Artemis said suddenly, she tilted her head, “it’s different.”  
  
“You’ll find something Artemis. That’s a promise.” Henrietta opened the door and clicked it behind her.

 

Artemis kept her eyes trained upward, M’gann let her reflect. “Let’s get more books...” Artemis began slowly, “then maybe, maybe call my mom.”  
  
M’gann grinned like a fool. M’gann got her the phone after Henrietta left and dialed it for her, she asked for them one by one and M’gann bit her lip.

 

M’gann knew Artemis had been avoiding her mom’s call, her mom’s worry, and now her thoughtful eyes seem to light a new path in front of them.

 

“Here she is.”  
  
They talk for a very long time, M’gann leaves the room when she hears Artemis’s voice start to crack- when they discuss her fear of disappointing her mom in the way kids make the same mistakes. She agrees they’ll meet this week, they had a lot to talk about.

 

M’gann felt her spirit was exhaling very slowly.

 

\--------------

 

Artemis always imagined she was meant to hold a bow, that it looked like her and she looked like it.

She had a dream that night, in the forest, in the woods, leaping, jumping, shooting arrows off into the distance and hitting every target with a bright ‘thump.’ She could feel blood in her veins and the heat in her chest. She was panting, and yelling and challenging the world to stop her.

 

She jump, she leapt, she kept shooting.

 

 Artemis woke up with a damp pillow.

“I think…” Her eyes were leaking and M’gann kissed her face and jawline, looking like she hadn’t been sleeping.

“I always thought I grew up to do this.”

“This?”  
  
“I chose to fight crime,” it felt like she was working through a complicated math program that was worth half her grade. “But maybe, I was more than just a pretty face punching people.”

M’gann blinked several times and then leaned down kissed her on the mouth, she kissed back.

“You were a pretty midriff too.” She comments with humor in her eyes.

Artemis chuckles, “well if worked on you…”  


“Oh, it worked on me.” She snuggles closer to her in bed, “I had to catch my breath when I saw you the first day. Can’t believe it actually worked out.”  
  
“Don’t worry, I’m the lucky one here.”  
  
“Nooo,” she wag’s a finger at her, but they are smiling, M’gann leans down. “No.” She says firmly.

They embrace and she starts massaging her neck, Artemis remains deep in thought.

“I want a haircut tomorrow.” She had been saying that for a while, there was no point in having long hair if she couldn’t tuck it behind her ears herself.

M’gann nods, “Okay. We’ll make an outing of it.”  
  
She smiles, and nods, “I want it all off…” She licks her lips, “And maybe, maybe they’ll see I’m different when I go back.”  
  
“Go back?” Artemis watches her girlfriends eyes widen in the dim light.

 

Artemis nods firmly, “I chose to fight crime. I can’t stop choosing now, that wasn’t taken from me.” M’gann seems to be rubbing her eyes, Artemis grins, “Don’t be a sap, come on. You know I’ll have to deal with at least ten different ‘long time no see’ teary-eyes already.”  
  
“Let me take you out.” M’gann sounded earnest, her face intense. “And we can, get ready. Be ready.”  
  
Artemis rolled her eyes, “you did always like dates too much.”  
  
M’gann clapped her hands together, “I take that as a yes!” There was no stopping her after all.


	3. Want and Rebirth

Artemis wasn’t sure how to feel.

How to feel about public, about the chair, about the new breeze on her neck and weightlessness on her shoulders. She had been growing it out since she was seven, she takes a deep breath in through her nose, it was gone.

“Oh!” M’gann was clapping her hands, “you look so good!”

Artemis rolled her eyes as she puff into her ‘sip ‘n’ puff chair to roll out into the light of the hall, “hair or outfit?”  
  
“Both.” M’gann raises her eyebrows, “but I do like that dress.”

Artemis snorts, “I know. You picked it out.”

M’gann positioned herself behind the chair and pushed, “hey, what can I say? You look good in black.”

 

Artemis wants to hide the small smile on her face—too fluttery and shy for her liking. Of course, she can’t.

 

She sighs and M’gann lets her roll herself to the car, giving hard puffs into the wand to move herself. It was satisfying in the way she imagines someone’s first steps are.

 

M’gann chatters about their newest additions to the team, “and get this,” she beamed, “she threw the guy against the wall, hit the beams and took the whole place down! Thank God we were there, or the rookies would be pancakes.”

 

Artemis shook her head and bit her tongue, there was no ‘wish I was there.’ That was implied.

 

“What did you say her one liner was?” She asks for M’gann’s sake.

 

“Oh ho ho,” she laughs and they reach a large van, donated to them from the Wayne foundation as wheel chair accessible. “She said ‘take a break!’ Broke his shovel over his head and looked like puppy looking for a pet, I love them, but they are silly.”

 

Artemis glanced up at her, every second the ramp took to come down grated on her nerves, “oh, silly, I’m sure we wouldn’t know anything about that as rookies.”

 

“I only blew up the kitchen once!” M’gann defended and Artemis laughs. “They’ve done it twice.”

 

“Just, help me up chef.” M’gann clucks at her but she gets her in the passenger seat and let’s M’gann drive. There was something nice about. Normal.

 

She doesn’t even resent being unable to lock her own door, close her own window, scratch her ass. Okay, maybe, she resented it only a little less than before.

 

They make it to one of the brightest buildings in the middle of the city- flashing lights surround it like glowing suns and people wait in line as if it’s a glamour shoot inside. All long dresses and some prime suits.

 

Artemis bites her cheek, “M’gann.” She says seriously, “we can’t go in there.”

 

M’gann was already unbuckling herself as they got lucky and snagged a parking spot, “oh come on now, I want to show my gf off, it’ll be nice.”

 

“This place is too much... I’m not sure if I’ll be able to afford the water.”

 

M’gann takes out her purse and points to it stuffed with bills, “think of it as a gift. A return present.”

 

Artemis takes a deep breath, “I can’t accept this.”

 

“Sure you can! And this place is accessible to uh, us.” M’gann doesn’t meet her eye and it boils her blood, there are so many things she wants to do. She settles for gnashing her teeth and taking another deep breath.

 

M’gann looks at her uncertainly, there were bags under eyes and something older about the way she held herself. “Please.”

 

Artemis nods, she would do that for her, “yeah. Okay…But it’s present for you too.”

 

M’gann lights up, “of course! I chose this glitzy place after all, you’ll love it, I promise, and they have seafood and cakes in the top ten in the country.” She chirps and Artemis closes her eyes to get lost in her voice.

This was nice.

 

They make it inside, they got to the front in line for reasons Artemis could guess at, a table is reserved for them on the first floor.

 

She makes her way to the table, M’gann only having to turn her slightly to make it, they share a huffing grin and M’gann tucks herself in.

 

Easy music permeates the air, and it’s bright as day time, Artemis tries not to stick her tongue out at it all, the water fountain bubbled and that was something easy along her prickling scalp.

 

She shakes her head and feels no loose strands, “It’s really all gone.” Artemis laughs, M’gann frowns deeply for a moment and then must have realized she was talking about her hair.

 

“Yeah! Your face is so pretty, lucky you.”

 

Artemis’s breathe hitches, _lucky_ , “well, gotta be good at something, might as well be head shape.”

M’gann actually laughs, their humor had grown a little darker.

 

“I love it.” They glance down at the menu, and M’gann tells the man to bring them ‘what’s good.’

 

Artemis looks M’gann in the eye as the air settles, “I was thinking of buying some more books.”  
  
“More?” M’gann drums her fingers on the table, “did you finish the criminal encyclopedia already?”

 

Artemis raised her chin, “don’t look so surprised, I didn’t lick over 2,000 pages for nothing.”

 

M’gann wrinkled her nose delicately, “good thing we stopped getting them from the library. Also, aren’t you using that robot now?”

 

“Yeah, but licking was more satisfying.” She responds simply with a smirk, “but more, more books would be good.”

 

M’gann pets on her immobile hand and then remembers herself, both of their eyes freeze and then they cough.

 

“Well, I am all for it.”

 

“Even if my eyes go next?” She offers wryly with a frayed smile. M’gann grimaces and Artemis looks away, “I know I wasn’t much of a reader back in the day…or at all. More of an ass kicker really, but I think people, are sometimes, not just, you know.”

 

“One thing?” M’gann says simply and Artemis watches her without blinking.

 

The waiter comes and Artemis receives some sort of lobster bisque with a straw. Her cheeks heat up as she has bend a little and take her meal through a straw in public- but less embarrassing then have a girlfriend feed her in public. So that was something.

 

They go back to the recent political scandal and laugh over Wally tripping on his feet in the middle of a B-rate mission.

 

Artemis moves the conversation to as light as possible. Of course, she flinches when M’gann cleans her face and Artemis has to look at the bright super-lighted honey ceiling.

 

Her mouth huffs out and thinks of the breeze on her neck, it still prickled, she closes her eyes and imagines more.

 

“I was thinking of a computer too.” She says without thinking, out of order of what they were just talking about.

 

M’gann freezes before jutting a finger in the air, she rolls with it, “I was looking into that too! They have really advance voice activated ones now, they can do almost everything.”

 

Artemis smiles, tired and bubbling from her chest, “I would like that.”

 

“You could order groceries, read on it, check email, go on neopets-“

“Wow, you know me so well. Neopets.” She deadpans and M’gann snorts.

 

“I was just saying! There is a lot.”

 

Something unclenches and the pain is a little duller in her back.

 

“Dessert for the ladies!” Artemis watches M’gann jump as the waiter presents them with a giant lava chocolate cake piece.

 

Artemis face goes pale, “what’s this for?”

“Well,” the waiter winks at her and she grinds her teeth. “Let’s just say, it’s one us miss.”

 

“I don’t need free cake.” She basically snarls.

 

“It’s fine miss, on us.” He puts his hands up.

 

“Thanks, but no thanks,” Her eyes burn up around the edges, “I’m not a pity case! Who needs,” her eyes darts around as she thinks, “pity cake.”  

 

Rocks ground in her head and she wanted to flip the table over.

 

Some people from the other table whisper about a wheel chair and curious questions, she almost spits in the waiters face. “Take it back.”

 

“Artemis, Artemis,” M’gann pleads with her, “It’s your birthday!”

 

Artemis’s eyes go wide and tells herself to relax, “oh…” She gets out, “I, oh.” She breaths in, “I forgot.”

 

M’gann nods and turns back to the waiter, “thank you so much sir, she’s just been on edge,” she offers a watery smile and Artemis looks at her lap. He leaves them with a dip of his waist- looking no worse for wear and Artemis examining the floor tiles. They were light brown, and bright.

 

“I’m sorry.” She grits out.

 

“I understand.” M’gann sighs back.

 

“Dammit.” Artemis curses, “I didn’t want to… This should be… _Dammit_.”

 

“It’s fine!” M’gann says again, “it is date night.” She cuts into the lava cake.

 

She hangs her head, “do you want to feed me the cake?” She knows she does.

 

M’gann picks up a fork, “I swear, swear, swear, it will be…worth it.”

 

Artemis takes a bite and thinks about criminology and computers, and the cake really was good. They finish and pay with a bill Artemis doesn’t even want to look at the numbers (but she does and goes two shades paler, she tells her they’re going to Burger King next time). They get outside, Artemis keeping her eyes off the other guests as they go, she relaxes when the night air hits tem.

 

“Sorry about…the outburst.” She says haltingly. “I’ll write you some sappy poetry or whatever, I’ll make it up to you.”

 

M’gann laughs out loud, “I don’t want to make us both suffer.”

 

“Oh come on, you love romantic junk, I’ll rhyme, red with…bed. You have red hair, it’s it makes me want to…take you to bed.”

 

“No,” she whines, but her eyes are smiling.

 

“Green alien ladies, I bleed with…love, for them. Ectera.”  
  
“Ectera!” She was giggling.

 

M’gann laughs some more and Artemis continues a tirade of bad poetry, she had to, M’gann continued to be amused-- it was the best sound in the world.

 

\-------------------

 

M’gann dreamt of yellow skies and blue-puffs of birds that night, she wakes up after their date, and Artemis was sniffling and M’gann’s chest ached.

 

“Can I do anything?” She whispers in the dark.

 

Artemis coughed to hide her rasping breaths, “I wish I could hold you.” The other girl’s chest rattled.

 

“I’m fine,” M’gann reaches for her, “really, this was a fun night.”

 

Artemis let’s out another cry, “I want to hold you…I want to, I want to kiss you.

 

“We can still kiss!” She tries to find her face.

 

 Artemis laughs a hollow, unhappy sound, “you were too good for me, even before.”

 

“I could slap you for that you know.” She scolds as her brow furrowed.

 

“I just, it hurts sometimes, _want_.”

 

She sighs and curls up into her, stroking her cheek and singing a song in her language of loss and life.

 

Artemis goes very quiet, “I enjoyed the night.”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Yeah. I want to look at the files tomorrow, the ones the league doesn’t let the public see.” She frowns, “I’m going back.”

 

“To everyone?”  
 

She sighs, “yeah them too. Though…I kind of wish I never had to.”  
  
“It’s brave.” She replies sentimentally, it had been a long time.

  
“It’s not, it’s what I have to do.” Her voice was firm again and a gush of affection bubbles up in M’gann’s chest. She kisses her on the cheek.

\-----------------

Artemis was going to work more, and think harder. She was going to force her body to respond, it was still hers after all, still connected to the mind.

 

She could blow into the wheelchair to move, there had to be more. She began the next day to visit the team again, look them in the eye and really ask how the fight was going.

 

She didn’t talk much yet, there was as much bile in her throat at first, but her jaw loosened.

 

She could still throw jokes around and maybe she was a little funnier, tragedies had that effect on people, you just have to laugh at some point.

 

She told Wally to stop moping like a dejected cat that fell into a puddle, and made faces until Robin at least laughed even if he didn’t want to.

 

She was Artemis and dammit was she working on it, the justice league bought her a voice activated computer and she started looking.

 

Files, villains, plans, it went deeper, it all went deeper, and she had time to look for once.

 

She lay in bed and remembered the curve of her bow, people always painted portraits of themselves, built up who they thought they were.

 

But her mind lit up to the reflection that she could dig deeper, and she dreams a little less about her bow. Perhaps because she is sleeping less, perhaps because she has no reason to sleep ten hours a night now and her computer blinked into the late hours and M’gann and told her ‘only one more hour’ every hour.

 

Artemis was not just a portrait, more like a 3-d model.

 

She got access to the deeper files, the ones with restricted codes and encryptions, she did it on her own and kept talking and reading, something was taking ahold of her like obsession.

 

\-----------------

 

“He has the suitcase ray is on the basement level.” She spoke into the headset. “Take the elevator, get off on the ground floor and then take the stairs.”  
  
“Where are you getting this again?” One of the new recruits in some sort of blue suits questioned her.

 

Artemis opens her mouth to snap at him but a voice cuts in.

 

“Trust me, she’ll know twice as much about any mission than you on a good day.” Bart commented wryly and she tells them to move now.

 

“Reigns, I don’t think it’s here.”

 

She closes her eyes and sees it play out in her mind's eye, “Keep going.” ‘Golden Reigns’ was a nickname of the Goddess Artemis, and what more could she do for them but take the reigns?

 

“It’s not--whoa!” A commotion comes from her headset and she examines the screen, a commotion of guards assaulting the Blue Beetle.

 

“Go into the stairwell! Go down.” She instructs calmly and has them dart into the underground, “if worse comes to worse I can turn off the lights.”

 

They don’t reply but she can see them moving on screen, _go_ , she thinks, _go_.

 

The recruits find their way to the machine that controls time and allows for the slow destruction of the cities of earth- a disease of rust that would choke out metal and buildings.

 

They find the guards quickly and shots explode on screen. Artemis closes her eyes, “lights.” She says to the computer.

 

She turns off the lights, they yell into her headsets but she can observe the tides turning in their favor.

 

They destroy The Rust machine before it activates and Artemis heaves a sigh of relief and smiles.

 

“Come home.” She says finally, and lets them grumble their thanks into the earpiece.

 

“Do you think you could give us some forewarning next time?” A young Wonder Girl asks but Artemis huffs into the head piece.

 

“No.” She hears laughter and then backs away from the computer, sipping into the wand.

 

She lets the kids come home on their own and makes her way into the kitchen.

 

M’gann is hovering by the door and having some sort of argument with Superboy about the mudroom.

 

“It’s called a mudroom, keep the mud there.”  
  
“It looks like any other room in the house! I can’t keep track of them all-“

 

“Ahem,” Artemis clears her throat, she didn’t want to hear them argue. She catches her eye, and M’gann lights up.

 

“Will you excuse me?” M’gann says, not looking back and takes herself away to Artemis's side.

 

“So,” she starts and M’gann leans in.

 

“So?”

 

“Missions done.” She looks up in a silent moment before smiling, “home?”

“Wait, how’d it go? Were the kids okay, Garfield?”  
  
“He wasn’t on this mission, but they’re all fine.” She meets her eye, “you don’t think I’d get them out?”

“No! You’re the only reason I’d trust they ever get out.”  
  
Artemis accepts that and M’gann gets behind her chair, “so, tell me what ‘Golden Reigns’ knows about the next infiltration mission.”  
  
“She thinks she wants dinner first.”  
  
M’gann pushes her towards the outside, “let’s get Chinese.”

 

Artemis goes over in her head the logistics of the next mission, the amount of air they would need for an underwater takedown, and her own FNS appointment.

  
M’gann touches her neck lightly, smiles down and they leave for home.


End file.
